You will recall seeing those photos in newspapers and on TV recently of Trevor Flugge [the AWB fellow] in Iraq with pistol, etc. And he has given "evidence" [well, laughably so] at the Cole Inquiry into AWB.
This is what Flugge said recently:
"As a chairman, I was trotted out to open doors or to be a figurehead to take a political beating for the sake of doing business or to perform other ceremonial roles."
But, as Crikey points out so pointedly in today's mail-out, this is what our great Lord Downer of Baghdad [increasingly looking like someone caught with his fingers in the cookie-jar] said [as recorded on the DFAT web site] of Flugge at the time of his appointment back in April 2003:
"I want to announce today the appointment of Trevor Flugge , who is a very distinguished Western Australian farmer, as the Joint Senior Agricultural Adviser in Iraq. He'll be jointly holding the position of Senior Adviser with an American – somebody from the United States Department of Agriculture. And they will be responsible in the short term for providing advice and assistance to Iraq, both in terms of the rebuilding of Iraqi agriculture after thirty years of dictatorship, and also they'll be responsible for ensuring food security and food supply. We're delighted to have a very senior and experienced Australian play this significant role. Australia has long-standing involvement in Iraqi agriculture, not only through providing wheat as we have done for many years, but also we have had dry land farming projects in Iraq and we've had other substantial involvement over many years with Iraqi agriculture. So I think Trevor Flugge will be able to play a very substantial role. He is the former Chairman of the Australian Wheat Board. He's on a number of boards, including the board of Wesfarmers. So he's a distinguished businessman, not just a farmer, who's been very active in agripolitics in Australia over many years. He will go to Iraq fairly soon to make an initial assessment of the needs there. And I know from my own conversations with him in the last couple of weeks that he's already given a lot of thought to what can be done to help Iraqi agriculture. This is also an area where Australia will be providing substantial assistance to Iraq. Our aid program is going to focus significantly on agriculture, but also of course in other areas such as water and sanitation and the like. But agriculture is going to be a real focus of our aid program, and with Trevor Flugge jointly being Senior Adviser for the immediate future on agriculture in Iraq, it gives us an opportunity to make a real contribution to the rehabilitation of that country."
Cringe at how inept and untrustworthy these guys are - each being paid with our taxpayer's dollars.
This is what Flugge said recently:
"As a chairman, I was trotted out to open doors or to be a figurehead to take a political beating for the sake of doing business or to perform other ceremonial roles."
But, as Crikey points out so pointedly in today's mail-out, this is what our great Lord Downer of Baghdad [increasingly looking like someone caught with his fingers in the cookie-jar] said [as recorded on the DFAT web site] of Flugge at the time of his appointment back in April 2003:
"I want to announce today the appointment of Trevor Flugge , who is a very distinguished Western Australian farmer, as the Joint Senior Agricultural Adviser in Iraq. He'll be jointly holding the position of Senior Adviser with an American – somebody from the United States Department of Agriculture. And they will be responsible in the short term for providing advice and assistance to Iraq, both in terms of the rebuilding of Iraqi agriculture after thirty years of dictatorship, and also they'll be responsible for ensuring food security and food supply. We're delighted to have a very senior and experienced Australian play this significant role. Australia has long-standing involvement in Iraqi agriculture, not only through providing wheat as we have done for many years, but also we have had dry land farming projects in Iraq and we've had other substantial involvement over many years with Iraqi agriculture. So I think Trevor Flugge will be able to play a very substantial role. He is the former Chairman of the Australian Wheat Board. He's on a number of boards, including the board of Wesfarmers. So he's a distinguished businessman, not just a farmer, who's been very active in agripolitics in Australia over many years. He will go to Iraq fairly soon to make an initial assessment of the needs there. And I know from my own conversations with him in the last couple of weeks that he's already given a lot of thought to what can be done to help Iraqi agriculture. This is also an area where Australia will be providing substantial assistance to Iraq. Our aid program is going to focus significantly on agriculture, but also of course in other areas such as water and sanitation and the like. But agriculture is going to be a real focus of our aid program, and with Trevor Flugge jointly being Senior Adviser for the immediate future on agriculture in Iraq, it gives us an opportunity to make a real contribution to the rehabilitation of that country."
Cringe at how inept and untrustworthy these guys are - each being paid with our taxpayer's dollars.
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